Now that dental offices are re-opened, the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts office will begin conducting their sales and use tax audits again. Is your practice prepared for a visit?

Whether sale and use taxes apply to your dental practice depends on the specific situation of your practice. If you sell tangible personal property such as toothpaste and toothbrushes and purchase tangible personal property such as dental equipment or gloves, then your practice is likely subject to sale and use taxes.

Sale and use taxes apply at different times. For example, sales tax refers to taxes collected from the patient at the time non-exempt items are purchased in your dental office. Use taxes are remitted by you to the comptroller if you purchased a taxable item and did not pay sales tax on it.

If sales tax is not charged on purchase invoices for non-exempt items, it is the dentist’s responsibility to self-report the use tax on that item or service to the Comptroller’s office on the next sales tax return as taxable purchases.

Details on how sale and use taxes apply to dental practices, including examples of common taxable items, can be found in the March 2020 TDA TODAY, a publication of the Texas Dental Association.